US EPA to release biofuel blending mandate rule by June 21

[June 14, 2023]  By Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw
 
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release a final rule on biofuel blending volume mandates for the years 2023-2025 by June 21, after seeking a one-week extension on a deadline for the rule, according to a court document on Tuesday. 

Choices at the gas pump including ethanol or no ethanol gas are seen in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., January 29, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

The EPA was set to issue a final rule by Wednesday under a court-ordered deadline, but has agreed to an extension with industry trade group Growth Energy, the filing showed. Reuters reported the delay earlier on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

The EPA will not seek a further extension for the deadline, the agency said on Tuesday in a statement.

Growth Energy and the EPA submitted a consent decree agreement to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in July 2022 that required the agency to finalize 2023 renewable fuel volume requirements no later than June 14, 2023.

The final rule is set to mark a new chapter of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, which is more than a decade old. While Congress set out specific goals for the program through 2022, the law expands the EPA's authority for 2023 and beyond to change the way the RFS is administered.

The RFS is an often contentious law that can pit the oil and biofuel industries against each other. Ethanol producers and corn farmers like the mandates because they provide a market for their products, while the oil industry finds the requirements too pricey.

This most recent iteration of the RFS has brought in additional stakeholders, after the EPA in December proposed to include for the first time a pathway for electric vehicle manufacturers to generate lucrative credits under the rule.

The EPA is expected to abandon that part of the proposal in the final rule, Reuters previously reported, citing sources.

Also under the December proposal, the EPA would require oil refiners to add 20.82 billion gallons of biofuels to their fuel in 2023, 21.87 billion gallons in 2024, and 22.68 billion gallons in 2025.

Those volumes will include more than 15 billion gallons per year of conventional biofuels like corn-based ethanol, with the rest made up of advanced fuels, including those made from switchgrass, animal fats, or methane from dairy farms and landfills.

It is unclear whether those requirements will change in the final rule.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Paul Simao and Barbara Lewis)

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